Caring
by BrightPurple
Summary: Patrick Jane brings a homeless cat to the CBI and Teresa Lisbon gets a confirmation she has secretly been hoping for.


**Summary: **Patrick Jane brings a homeless cat to the CBI and Teresa Lisbon gets a confirmation she has secretly been hoping for.

I've been thinking about writing a "Jane/Cat" fiction for a few weeks now because I always had a hunch that Patrick Jane would love cats as they share some of his characteristics: Independent, not obeying to anyone's orders and manipulating people to get what they want (my cat does it with me all the time). When in "Bleeding Heart" my hunch was kind of confirmed, I finally had to write down this fiction. It didn't turn out to be as funny as I had hoped it would, though.

**Disclaimer:** The Mentalist still doesn't belong to me - I'm just burrowing.

**Caring**

„A social life? Martha? No. She had a cat . . ." Wilson answered Patrick Jane's question.

"Ah, yes!" Patrick answered with a broad smile, holding up a picture of a cat from Martha St. Claire's desk.

"But it died."

"Right." Patrick's smile faded away and he put the picture back on the desk as soon as Wilson had mentioned the cat's death.

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Teresa Lisbon was sitting in her office getting more and more suspicious every minute that passed without Patrick Jane bursting into her office bugging her with one of his annoying games. He had secretly sneaked away during their usual closed-case-pizza and still hadn't come back. She knew from experience that Jane's secret sneak-aways usually ended up in a mess that she would have to clean up and she was not exactly looking forward to having more paperwork to do.

Just when she uttered a sigh at the thought of the pile of paperwork getting higher and higher with every hour Jane was gone, he burst into her office without knocking, smiling his most radiant smile, and put a little bag down on her desk.

"What's that?" she asked in a sceptic tone.

"Trust me, you're going to need it" he answered and left her office with a mischievous smile.

She took the little bag and noticed it was a bag of cat biscuits. It took her only a few seconds to realize what Jane was up to. Angrily she stormed into the bullpen where her whole team was gathered in front of Jane's couch and looking at something he was holding in his arms. What he was holding in his arms was a young, probably about six months old cat, with grey and black leopard spots and big green eyes, looking at her distrustfully.

"For heaven's sake, Jane, where did you get this cat and why did you bring it here?!" she asked, not at all thrilled at the sight of the cute animal.

"Her name is Bastet, but her friends are allowed to call her Bessie. . ." Jane answered, beaming his most disarming smile at her.

"But that's a dog's name" Lisbon murmered before she could think of anything else to respond.

"No it's not. But if it was, I'm sure that would help you at least pretend you like her, as you obviously are more of a dog person."

"Never mind my preferences of animals. Just answer my question, Jane!" Lisbon was getting slightly annoyed.

"I found her in Martha St. Claire's house. She must have gotten her right after her first cat - the one in the picture - had died. When the police searched Marthas house, Bessie got scared and was hiding away. She's still a little shy with people she doesn't know. She was locked in the empty house and half starved when I found her. I'm going to . . . . OHA, that tickles!" While he was talking he had stopped stroking Bessies coat. Not willing to share his attention with anyone else, Bessie had started to move in his arms and somehow had managed to get face to face with him, softly biting the tip of his nose and tickling him with her whiskers.

"Touching story but that didn't answer my last question: Why bring her here and not take her to an animal shelter?" Lisbon asked, feeling sorry for the cat but not feeling like she was her responsibility.

"Why take her to an animal shelter where she has to live in a little cage with no room when she can stay here instead?" Jane asked back, tenderly stroking the cat's head as if to reassure her that she wouldn't have to go back to the animal shelter. The cat thanked him by giving him a little bump on the nose, purring loudly.

"Do I really have to explain that to you?" When Jane just raised his eyebrows questioningly, she went on: "This is the CBI, we are doing police work here and not animal care."

"Why are dogs allowed in here and Bessie is not?" Jane asked, sulking.

"Because those dogs are trained to do police work and Bessie is no use to us. I want you to get rid of her until tomorrow." Lisbon said in a firm voice, preparing to leave the bullpen.

"Bessie can do some useful police work as well: She's found Rigsby's secret love letters to VanPelt the first minute she got here, which makes her a hell of a detective" Jane murmured, handing Van Pelt a bunch of slightly torn paper Bessie had obviously been playing with.

"No, it doesn't. Everyone within a radius of one mile new about those love letters" Cho remarked dryly while a reddening Rigsby tried to disappear behind his computer and VanPelt discretely put the letters in her pocket.

With a tender smile on his face, Jane lay down on his couch, Bessie curling up on his lap, both slowly falling asleep.

* * *

When Teresa Lisbon entered the bullpen the next morning and saw Jane lying on his couch, the cat curled up on his lap, she angrily kicked his couch until both of them were awake.

"Didn't I tell you to get rid of that cat? Why is she still here?"

"Good morning to you, too, Lisbon. Why do you hate Bessie so much? No one else seems to mind and she hasn't done anything to deserve your rage. If you try give her one of those cat biscuits I gave you, she's going to be your best friend in less than a minute."

"I don't want to be friends with this cat, I want you to get rid of her right now." Lisbon insisted.

"Aha! Now I understand! You are jealous because you think this cat is going to steal my attention away from you. But, Teresa, if you wanted to be the one curling up on my lap, why didn't you just tell me so? I'm sure I could make room for both of you."

This didn't miss the intended effect as Lisbon just angrily rolled her eyes and stormed off to her office without a word.

* * *

As Jane obviously seemed to be very fond of Bessie and the cat didn't cause any major trouble, Lisbon kept postponing the getting rid of her day after day. She even had forced herself to approach the cat and give her one of the cat biscuits from time to time. Bessie didn't seem to like her very much and had become very possessive of Jane, always jumping on his lap when anyone was coming near him, making clear that she considered him her possession, but she tolerated Lisbon coming near feeding her some biscuits, somehow understanding that it was important to Jane that the two of them would get along.

One evening, Lisbon was staying in late in her office, finishing some paperwork. Everybody including Jane had left hours ago and she had just decided to go home as well when suddenly she heard voices coming from the elevator. Not knowing who would come to the CBI so late, she turned off the lights in her office so the intruders wouldn't notice her and she could strike unexpectedly from the dark if necessary. She was relieved when she noticed one of the voices was Jane's. As she wondered what he was up to she didn't switch the light back on but just peeked through the blinds of her office into the bullpen.

Jane led a young, nice looking couple to his couch where Bessie was curled up and took her into his arms.

"She's a lovely cat, a little shy in the beginning but once she gets to know you she's really friendly and devoted to everyone she likes" he said in a tender voice.

"Ooo, she's really cute. We're going to take good care of her, we've just lost our beloved cat and really missed having one around. But may I ask you why you want to give her away? You obviously love her a lot yourself?" the woman asked.

Jane gave her a sad smile. "The last time I was supposed to take care of someone didn't turn out too well" he said so quietly Lisbon could hardly hear him. "Just make sure she's happy and save, will you?" he added, struggling to get rid of the lump in his throat and the emotion that threatened to overcome him.

"We will. You can come and visit her any time you want" the man answered while Jane tenderly kissed Bessie on her furry head and then put her in the woman's arms.

"I probably won't. Just take good care of her. Goodbye!" Jane said, waving a little goodbye as the couple left. Bessie struggled to get out of the woman's arms and back to Jane but didn't succeed.

When the couple with Bessie had left, Lisbon saw Patrick Jane wipe away the tears that had been sneaking their way into his eyes. Lisbon was deeply moved by this scene. Although she would never have openly admitted that to anyone, not even to herself, she had always hoped that Patrick Jane cared as much about her and the team as they did care about him. If she had had any doubts about that, they had just dissolved during the last few minutes. Seeing how fond Patrick Jane had grown of that little cat in just a few days, there was no way he did not deeply care about the people he worked with every day as well.

With a tender smile on her face, she made sure to sneak out of her office without Patrick Jane noticing that she had been watching something he would never have wanted her to see. She had quickly dismissed the idea of joining Jane in the bullpen to give him some comfort, knowing how he rejected to all sorts of pity as well as comfort, probably thinking he didn't deserve it. But tomorrow she would get up early to make sure to get some of the blueberry muffins he liked so much: At least this was a way to show him she cared about him that he would not reject, although it was as subtle as the strawberries he kept placing on her desk every so often ever since she had let him come back into the team.

END

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Thanks for reading. Any feedback is appreciated!


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